


Home

by ottermo



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, death & suicide mentions, in reference to canon events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 12:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8890930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: "This is it, Flash," he says. "We're all that's left."





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write lots of this between episodes 7 and 8, but due to the way I am as a person it didn't really happen. So here is a bit of intro I was playing with before getting to the bit I actually wanted to write, heh.

It is getting dark when they appear, a cluster of shapes spilling out of an unmarked vehicle. Flash, who is keeping watch at the window while Hubert and Connie charge, picks out Max's silhouette immediately, watches as he helps the last one out before leading the group along the rails, towards the train. Flash wakes her friends, tells them, "Wait here," then hops down from the carriage to meet the group.

She puts on her brightest, welcoming smile, but something in the way they are walking makes her wonder if Max's mission has been successful after all. Most of them are holding on to one another somehow: arms linked or slung across shoulders, hands joined, a shuffling band who do not look liberated at all. And there are so few of them. No one is returning with the van to fetch another set of survivors who didn't fit in the first load. Flash counts nine, including Max, who quickens his pace to get to her ahead of the others. 

"What happened?" she asks, disabling her smile, searching his face for clues on how to proceed. "Where are the others?" 

He takes both her hands, just as he had when they parted. "This is it, Flash," he says. "We're all that's left." 

She squeezes his hands. "What can I do?" 

The others have caught up with Max by now, and he turns to them, letting go of Flash's right hand as he does so. 

"Everyone, this is Flash. Go with her into the train. She will find you chargers. You all need to rest." 

He smiles at her then, just a small shadow of the one she's used to. He runs his thumb over the top of Flash's hand before letting go of that one too, and she feels a flicker of something she thinks is called pride, at the realisation that he's trusting her with the important task of welcoming the new ones to their home. 

Max hangs back with Matilda, one of the synths, and a human man Flash thinks is probably Leo, Max's brother. That would make the synth Mia - their sister or their mother, Flash hasn't quite worked that one out yet. But there is plenty of time for that. 

"Just follow me," she says to the rest of the synths, and she holds out her hand to the one nearest her, a female with reddish-blonde hair and wide, anxious eyes. After a small hesitation, the synth takes Flash's hand, and grips it tight. Flash leads her to the train, and the other four shuffle along behind them. 

Connie and Hubert are waiting for them in the doorway. They move backwards to allow Flash space to bring the others through, and Hubert shakes hands and swaps names with each one as they pass. Flash listens, as she and Connie go and fetch the extra chargers. Sunny - the synth whose hand she'd been holding. Tabitha and Frankie, the other females, who are still holding onto each other, have been since Flash first spotted them. The males are called Isaac and Ketlon, as far as Flash can make out. 

She and Connie attach the two extra chargers to the generator they've been using for power. They will have to find more, now that there are so many of them, but they do have five, enough for all the newcomers to get some power. A spark hisses from one of them as Flash connects it, and she pulls her hand away quickly. The generator is not perfect, but Max has tried his best to provide for them, to make life here as pleasant as it is safe from prying eyes. 

Flash and Connie hand out the leads, and the synths sit together in the seats nearest the generator, gently lowering their heads as they finally feel the relief of power, their batteries no longer straining to keep them upright. 

Once they are all dormant, Connie turns to Flash, her eyes wide. "Why are they so sad?" she asks. 

Flash slips her arm through Connie's, and tries to sound wise and experienced like Max, because that is what Connie thinks of her. "They have seen sad things today," she guesses. "But they will be happy here, with us." 

Connie seems satisfied with that. 

***************

The air is cold, but still, so it only takes a minimal effort for Mattie to keep herself from shivering. She's not usually a fidgeter, but right now her every unconscious movement seems conspicuous, a reminder of what people who shuffle their feet have done today to people who stand stock still. 

Leo, organic at least in body, seems almost frozen, that haunted look still all across his face. It's there in Mia's eyes too, and now that he can't be seen by Flash or any of the survivors, even Max looks crushed. There is no moral high ground here, Mattie reflects. She and Max may have been against the idea, but the words "I told you so" have never been further from her lips. Too many lives have been lost to reduce it to that. 

"What do we do now?" Mia asks, despondent. "What do we tell them?" 

She doesn't seem to be addressing anyone, just staring out along the tracks. 

"We tell them that they're safe here," Max says, even so. "And we show them that they're loved, that they're part of something. Let them live without feeling they're in danger, for now." 

"We should remove their trackers," Leo says. "Even if they can't hurt them, they might be GPS-enabled." 

Mattie watches those words hit Mia, a shadow seeming to cross the synth's face. Mattie frowns. "Hey," she says, softly. "It's okay. We'll find a way to do it without hurting them." 

"It's not that." Mia touches the back of her own neck. "Hester and I, we... We knew we had the trackers. We confirmed with each other as soon as we met up. But we didn't even think to get rid of them, or check the computers for a secure perimeter-" 

"You were working fast," Leo cuts in. "You couldn't have thought of everything." He stares down at his shoes. "At least you didn't walk them to their deaths. You'd have heard the first ones falling." 

"She'd have been the first one to fall," points out Max. "None of this is helping anyone. You tried. What's done is done." It's no happier a sentence, for all his kind tone. 

"We should go inside," Max continues. He glances at Mattie, eyebrows slightly raised. "Unless you need to leave us." 

It hasn't crossed her mind to do anything but stay. "No, I..." She trails off, realising something. "Do you want me to leave?" 

"No," says Max. "I'd prefer it if you stayed. Right from the start, they should know that there are humans we can trust. But if you need to go back to your family, we'll understand." 

She thinks of the house, of colour-trial patches on her bedroom wall and the taste of her own tears dripping onto her lips as Odi stared back at her, the horror of a suicide with no blood, no trace. 

"I'll stay," she says. 

Once, finding them had seemed like the most important thing in the world. The price of her believing that, of her putting it ahead of everything else, had been a life. To walk away now would make it cold-blooded murder. 

******* 


End file.
